Thursday, 21 April 2011

This Bodiless Creation Ecstasy Is Very Cunning.

There is no awakening. There is no enlightenment. There is what is. Labels of awakening and enlightenment are another playful game of life, looking wonderingly at itself in all that is. Whether one "awakens" before "physical death" is a concept that gives the apparently unfolding story and its outcomes deep meaning. Whatever it is that seems to happen, awakening or lila, samsara or enlightenment, bliss or sorrow, is just as it should be, and are all the mind's labels "after" the fact. A spiritual journey is fun, engaging, intense and interesting. Those stories of reincarnation and karma are particularly fascinating stories the ego tells itself to keep itself going. If reincarnation "is," who cares...the new personality doesn't remember the last one, past life regressions aside. The story can be as interesting, and as long - thousands of years - as you like; it can include such things as telepathy, remote viewing, alien control, chakra energy centres, transcendant bliss, and suicidal depression if ordinary day-to-day living just isn't doing it for you. The mind will do a lot to make sense of life, bring in the concept of karma, of heaven and hell, of the last second of life being a pinpoint of infinity, where the final decision is made...so many belief systems, so little "time".

All the answers to all the questions about life and death, birth and rebirth, samsara and awakening are "right", or "wrong". Conflicting answers can co-exist simultaneously, but the mind can't handle the co-existence of antithetical concepts, and so attempts to pigeonhole reality, to force it to make sense within narrow parameters. It is possible that the need for it to make sense can seemingly just fly away.

Some seekers have a very narrow definition of what "awakening" or "enlightenment" is. It is this. You are there. You are it already, your mind just can't believe it. It's not joy or bliss or tears or gratitude; it's this, whatever flavour and quality "this" seems to have. You deserve it, you are it, and in the unfolding story in relative reality, when the outcomes aren't the goal, it seems the goals become attainable. There is no goal. And in that concept, all goals become possible, because they are possible, especially in the absence of stultifying concepts.

If you seem to be going through a rough patch, and your mind is roving and spinning and trying to make sense of everything (a friend of mine calls it "washing machine mind"), don't worry. This isn't necessarily bad, although very uncomfortable. Perhaps it's an idea to relax, and hang in there - it's worth it. In the ever-changing, endless, timelees moment that is "this", all you have to do is nothing and everything changes anyway. It doesn't matter whether "you" "awaken" or not. The perfect expression is already you. If that expression is an ego that believes that it's separate from the rest of reality and is in pain because of this, that's a perfect expression as well. You are perfect. Whatever is happening is just as it must be. If you resist this, the resistance is perfect. Nothing is excluded. Here is the perfect playground for existence, right here, right now, always, even if it's negative, which balances out all that boring bliss stuff. If at all possible, try to enjoy it!

Bill Murray's character Phil asks a pertinent question at the beginning of this clip from Groundhog Day, one of the best films of all time and a fabulous analogy to seeking enlightenment. He is just beginning to sense what's important, at least to his character...after many failed attempts, he finally realises what his purpose is: live, and love, in a nutshell. Enjoy.

very refreshing suzie to see this post! if there was a like button, I would be pressing it! ;)

the story is always exciting, right now my story seems to be the fight to get a full time job to make a future living, and working part time job currently with little happiness in what is being worked. :P

Hi Tom, yes, I've seen this story. Whether reincarnation exists or not...it simply means the story is extended indefinitely. There is no time, not really, no space, not really, nothing for these stories to happen in, not really; mind will create the most phantasmagorical machinations, the most extraordinary unfoldings, the most awesome realities...and it's all happening, here, now, in this endless, infinite moment. Those memories of a past life are happening now. This dialog about a child who remembers a past life...happening now. Whatever happens, it happens now. It is always now o'clock. Existence is, and it is in the now.

Thanks Sue, a great blog post its all there! Still wondering why I'm saying the mantras and reading the books but hey that's OK to. I can't stop being me and that me has no solid core anyway. When I first listened to you on Conscious tv what really got me was the NOW point. The mind loves to believe there is a past and future but can only back it up with a now thought. Best :-)

Hi Ian, I burned my original diaries I wrote for my 18 months of therapy and it was one of the most satisfying feelings ever; shades of Kali the creator and destroyer, or the Phoenix, or ashes to ashes; the powerful archetypes that symbolise the cyclical and transitory nature of all that arises. There is no part 2, but I'm working on a second book, this one more traditional fiction that I hope to distrubute a bit more widely.

Hi ynoT, liking your blog btw. Perfection is a bit redefined as used in most of the pointers by non duality teachers/writers to mean: a thing is perfect by the fact of its mere existence. This is how I generally use the adjective "perfect" and the noun "perfection". A more traditional definition of "perfect" is always subjective and arbitrary, resulting in a connotation of inaccessability; perfection is generally regarded as a superlative, and impossible to achieve. However, this, right here, right now, is perfection; and it is always right here and right now. Whatever it is that seems to be happening, is perfect. It is, so it is perfect.

Reading what you write leaves me feeling cleaner and clearer. Like a moment of true clarity. And in this post I so appreciate your directness about "what is." I am presently writing a blog called "At this moment..." about an awakened spirit, very much from a similar pov that we are all buddhas, but that our mind hasn't realised it yet. In the process I am tying myself in semantic knots about how to describe the process of coming to see or becoming aware of our reality without the filtering of a conditioned self. And having so much fun in the process.

There are 2 ways to take this statement. One is that it can stir something inside and a realisation can occur that everything is perfect including the suffering, pain, 'washing machine mind'. etc.The second way is that my suffering is the way it is meant to be, I can do nothing about it and it doesn't matter, and there is no-one for it to matter to, so I will continue to suffer as i always have done and I may as well go down the pub and get drunk, and be like everyone else who is stuck in mind created suffering.The first response is instinctual understanding (and release from the tyranny of the mind in the midst of the discomfort), the second is conceptual understanding. The difference between these 2 is immense and modern non-duality seems hell-bent on making no2. acceptable and ok and to be stuck with, because there is no-one to do anything about it. I spent years trying to persuade myself that it didn't matter if "I" awakened or not, this was a powerless and hopeless time, until I realised that I did have a choice and I could actually choose to let the stuff going on be and see that it was evidence of being awake of awareness. I realised that the non-duality position of no choice was simply a dualistic extreme, a logical position that had no reality.

I thought the universe existed before sentient beings because it was Consciousness appearing as the universe and therefore it didn't take the arising of sentient beings to effect the simultaneous arising of the universe, but Wayne Liqourman said because it's a dualistic universe it needs sentience to bring it into existence by being conscious of it. I thought Consciousness was in awe of its creatureless creation long before sentience appeared. Where am I going wrong?

Great post Suzanne- thank you! Also will copy and paste what I wrote to a friend about your book-

I like the naked and unshielded descriptions of addiction, despair, and self-loathing which are intertwined and saturated with this openness-- as if the frame of reference has broken and consciousness is unbounded, in joyful free fall. What I glimpsed was this space of not fighting or judging anything, a space where nothing is excluded, a heart that has room for ugliness. As I read the book it was as if this miraculous energy of acceptance HERE was suddenly noticed, and everything that had rubbed me the wrong way had room to be. When I stopped being irritated about being irritated, then the irritation dissolved in the space of acceptance. I don't mean being irritated with the book, I mean the chronic, low-level, unnoticed background irritation that I have with me-and-my-life-and-this-moment...that is what dissolved as I read the book, especially the italisized nondual selections.

Hi Anonymous, the powerlessness and hopelessness seemed to be a big part of my unfolding story too, but the letting go that surrounded having no choice seemed to be more powerful than having choices. Each to his own tweaks to the (nonexistent) arising story. There is no one "correct" way. The illogical is as valid as the logical, as the chaos theorists will tell you!

Hello Suzanne. About 20 years ago I was trying to become a writer. One day I was working on a story when a phrase appeared from nowhere which had nothing to do with the story I was trying to write: In a sense, all sense is nonsense. I knew I didn't make it up so I never told anybody what it was. I never mentioned it to anyone until now writing to you. Five minutes ago I was walking through the park on my way back from an errand when I suddenly realized that I knew finally what the phrase meant with my whole being instead of just on a mind level. It was no longer obscured by doubt or contradiction. In a sense, all sense is nonsense. It has a beautiful balance to it, like a duck stationed on the water.

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